Dear Yule Goat Letter

[everysecondtuesday]

Hi! I have previous past letters with likes lists and prompts that still hold true, so feel free to peruse old letters, though please be aware of my current DNWs and requests. Some of these are fandoms I have requested in the past, please feel free to check out my fandom tags on the sidebar and see if there's anything in past letters you think might apply!

For ease of finding me: tuesday.

What I've written and what I want as a gift can differ, so for best results, please rely on my likes and DNWs over what you may find on my AO3 works page.

Text Likes

I like all ratings for fic, from General Audiences to Explicit.

I'm open to any length, from just over the minimum to sprawling epics (and under the min for treats).

I like both traditional fic and non-traditional and experimental formats, including interactive fiction, Choose Your Own Adventure, epistolary, in universe documents, and multimedia. I like past and present tense. I generally prefer third person (especially consistent third person limited where POV shift only happens in scene breaks or doesn't happen at all) or a match to canon (which in some cases is going to be first or second) or a match to the standards of the form (e.g. first person for epistolary, letters, and journals; second person for CYOA and IF).

(I'm open to everything! These are just preferences.)

General Likes:

• Accidental kid acquisition
• Accidental pet acquisition, for example:
• This stray cat has adopted you
• Found a box of puppies, adopted out every one but the runt of the litter who loves you
• Received a monster egg while clearing a dungeon
• Tiny weak baby monster being bullied by other monsters is now following you and has decided you are the head of its pack/herd/whatever
• AUs that add things to the canon setting (examples are a non-exhaustive list)
• adding magic, cultivation, chakra, or the Force to settings without it
• canon setting but with soulmates
• like canon but sentinels exist
• like canon but with omegaverse
• canon but IN SPACE
• arranged marriages in canons without them
• AUs that replace the canon setting with something equivalent (examples are a non-exhaustive list)
• Star Wars AU that replaces magic, chakra, or cultivation with the Force
• superhero AU that replaces magic, chakra, or cultivation with super powers
• Dragon Age fusion
• AUs that change the genre while keeping canon mechanics like magic, chakra, the Force, or cultivation (examples are a non-exhaustive list)
• cyberpunk + canon powers
• video game, gamer, and System AUs
• canon as a space opera
• Canon-divergent AUs (examples are a non-exhaustive list)
• different first meeting
• character doesn't die
• event happens differently
• Case fic
• Solving mysteries!
• Solving murders!
• How to commit the perfect murder and get away with it for your righteous cause/less righteous revenge (Nie Huaisang is not giving lessons because he knows nothing; Carl will gladly give his secrets to future Cookbook users)
• Missions
• Heists
• Character has the chance to re-do/relive events
• Humor and banter
• Hurt/comfort
• Someone's hurt and someone else patches up their wounds/takes care of them!
• Bedside vigil
• A character not letting on how hurt they are because they don't want to be a burden or distraction
• A character not letting on how hurt they are because they don't trust someone who's listening or watching
• A character finally letting on how hurt they are and getting unexpected support (or finally getting the chance for the support they knew they would get all along)
• Passing out only for someone to catch them
• A burnt out, tired character finally getting the chance to sleep
• Intrigue, including political and spy vs. spy
• Magic, canonical or otherwise
• Mpreg (including het mpreg)
• Mysteries
• Political negotiations
• Plot
• Time loops
• Time travel
• Space
• Worldbuilding

Horror Likes:

• Artifacts of doom
• Blood as horror
• A single smeared bloody handprint dragged along the wall
• Pools of it
• The water always tasted oddly coppery and seems tinted with something
• Body horror
• Cannibalism (by choice or by necessity; knowing or unknowing)
• Creeping horror
• Eldritch horrors
• Gallows humor
• Ghosts and ghost stories
• Mimics and people lures
• Monkey's paws (literal or metaphorical)
• Monsters
• Murder mysteries
• Non-euclidean geometry and architecture
• The setting is out to get you
• The undead
• There's also my Jump Scare freeform likes (separate post)

Ship Likes:

• Affection
• Even if (especially if) they're antagonistic or annoy each other, I like my ships to like each other, whether that's as a person or admiring their skills or being incredibly, indefatigably (and perhaps, to their first feelings, unfortunately) attracted to them; the juxtaposition of annoyance with affection and attraction is a big plus to me ("Who gave that jerk such a nice face" to admiration/full-blown affection/complete loyalty is such a fun relationship path)
• But also they don't have to be antagonistic or annoy each other! I love when my ship just *likes* each other, full of joy or quiet contentment that this other person exists and is here and is in their life, and maybe even, gasp of delight, likes them back
• And also those ships where easy, affectionate friendship slips into romantic liking, whoops, when did this ship fall head over heels in love?
• Alternate first meetings
• This new first meeting went much better than the original!
• This new first meeting went much more disastrously than the original!
• This new first meeting gives an excuse to immediately fling ourselves into romcom territory!
• This new first meeting gives an excuse to immediately fling ourselves into sexual tension territory!
• Bathing together and bathing each other
• One gently washing the other's back or helping wash their hair as a show of affection and care
• One is injured, and the other needs to help bathe them
• The ship just chilling in the tub, zero feet apart, because they like each other
• One drying the other's hair
• Firsts
• Dates
• Kisses
• Times
• Carrying
• Princess carry
• Piggyback ride
• One arm draped over the other's shoulders as they escape/go to seek medical attention/whatever
• One thinks the other is going to delicately carry them like a precious package but they are in a rush and the other character is very straightforward and utilitarian: fireman carry time!
• One thinks the other is going to just fireman carry them because the situation is urgent and they need to get moving, but the other character is like, "No, my precious cargo will be princess carried," trolling or serious!
• All affectionate carrying but also picking the other character up like a stray piece of luggage or a scruffed cat SCTIR HAS RUINED ME yes please let them carry this other full grown adult like an item
• Kissing, including
• Forehead kisses
• Kisses to hands, be it the back of the hand, knuckles, or the palm, or even fingertips
• Lips brushing
• Making out
• Gestures of affection and intimacy
• Physical ones like face touching and cuddling
• Also things like feeding your loved ones, giving gifts, being willing to be emotionally vulnerable with this one person, and other non-physical things
• Handholding
• Fingers fully threaded
• Just the pinkies linked
• That moment when the hands are so close you know they're going to touch and handholding is imminent
• Marriage
• Of convenience, but then real feelings
• Accidentally, but actually they both want this
• For contrived plot reasons, but also the person who suggests getting divorced is getting thrown in the trash by the ship, how could you suggest breaking up this very important marriage
• Straightforward decisions to propose that are then put off for plot reasons/because the other character thinks the proposal is a joke/because the other character thinks it's for contrived plot reasons and while they really want the marriage for real, they can't bear to have it be fake and will just SOLVE THE PLOT like a boss while the other character wonders what it will take to get married to the love of their life around here
• Disaster weddings that nevertheless end with two very happily married people (unless I have requested a 3+ person ship, in which case 3+ happily married people maybe?)
• Mutual pining
• Is it because of a misunderstanding?
• Is it because of circumstances?
• Are they good friends, allies, enemies?
• Are they fucking while pining?
• Soulmates and/or soul bonds
• Whoops, accidentally activated the magical artifact and now our souls are bonded for life
• On purpose activated the magical artifact for plot reasons and this soul bond has a purpose (but oh, no, it turns out we like it … or maybe just the chance to be close to each other)
• Names denoting soulmates, but thanks to transmigration, there are misunderstandings
• Painsharing and delicious angst that comes with it
• Wondering if the other person would like them if they weren't soulmates (and the answer is that they are probably soulmates *because* they're compatible)
• Thinking it's a one-way bond and they're wrong
• Thinking it's a one-way bond, and they're right, but the other person wants them the most anyway, and will figure out a way to make it both ways if they have to invent it themself
• How being soulmates changes canon
• How it doesn't change canon
• Two soulmates who didn't think they'd like each other from other impressions discover they actually like each other very much
• There was only one bed
• Undercover as a couple

Smut Likes:

• All things vanilla
• Don't like kinks, or at least anything listed below? Just want to write what you consider to be vanilla sex without the bells and whistles? I like that, too, so don't feel like you need to add anything to make the sex scenes better tailored to a gift for me.
• Anal with men on the receiving end
• M/M, F->M; but not M->F or F/F
• Bathing together and bathing each other leading to bathtub/shower sex
• (Though not sex in a public bath, in that I would prefer sexual material not to go into a shared bathing space)
• Biting
• Blood but sexy
• Post-fight, there's blood trailing down one character's face, and the other character wants to tenderly trace that trail of blood with their fingers and smear it around; to follow that trail in the opposite direction with their tongue to lick it up.
• One character's lip is split, and the other character can taste their blood and likes it
• One character is covered in the blood of their enemies, and another character thinks that's super, super hot actually, wow, what wonderfully messy competence
• Bondage and restraints, especially:
• Silk rope
• Ties or other things being repurposed
• Honor bondage
• Bruising
• Intentional and consensual and unintentional, but they're both into it
• Desperate sex/desperation in the non-watersports sense
• Where they're so glad they're both/the other person is alive
• Where they thought they'd never get to have this, and they want it now, now, now
• Where they think they could die tomorrow
• Where they think this may be the only time (though we the reader know it is not going to be the only time)
• Where they're just so eager and head over heels for the other person that it's dipped straight into desperation
• Emotional sex/emotions during sex
• Facesitting
• Both F/F and F/M
• Face-touching during sex
• First times (together or ever)
• Fingering, especially for F/F ships
• Frottage
• Gentleness
• Hickeys
• Kneeling
• Laughter/joking around/banter during sex
• Manhandling
• Masochism
• Multiple orgasms
• Oral sex
• Cunnilingus and blowjobs both
• Overstimulation
• Tenderness
• Trust

Do Not Wants

General DNWs

• Comas, covid, and unrequested real life serious illness.
• Death of common pet-type creatures. (Cats, dogs, hamsters, etc. Fish being eaten is fine.) (This is also fine in Rimworld and DF if it doesn't make anyone sad.)
• Deaths of other animals that would cause sapients grief. (Killing livestock and non-pet-type wild animals: fine if no one is sad over it; please let Prepotente's siblings be safe.)
• Pet-type animals dying by direct dwarf action in Dwarf Fortress or by direct colonist action in Rimworld. (So no cats as domesticated meat animals, but kitten bombs or a cat army to try to defeat forgotten beasts are fine.)
• Gender-related dysphoria.
• Pregnancy of trans men. (Other mpreg welcome.)
• Noncon, rape play, or fear of rape. Deliberately engineered situations that might otherwise be dubcon. (Dubcon arising of an accident like "you weren't supposed to get into the sex pollen" or "wow, that choice to become a new race sure did come with heats and ruts" or "the decision to have sex with your enemy is prooooooobably influenced by the fact you're an omega in heat": fine.)
• Traumatic sex or sex-related trauma. (The characters don't have to be happy about their sex decisions or make good decisions, but I don't want them to be fucked up or sad or experiencing symptoms of PTSD about it.)
• Memory issues related to sex. | Infidelity for a requested ship. (Carl's wife-by-legal-action does not count for the purposes of this DNW.)
• Underage (under 18) sex. (References to teenagers being sexually active in teenager-typical ways is fine, but I'd rather not get explicit sex scenes.) (Whatever age the AI is in DCC, we're not counting it as underage for these purposes.)
• Adult/currently-a-minor relationships. (Whatever age the AI is in DCC, we're not counting it as a minor for these purposes.)
• The spelling "cum" (as opposed to "come").
• Anal tearing or bleeding.
• Women on the receiving end of anal.
• Contract or 24/7 BDSM or use of the word "master" in a sexual context.
• Painplay as a punishment or unintended and/or unwelcome sexual arousal from a punishment or torture.
• Mommy kink. Daddy kink in any fandom besides DCC
• Sexual material going into a public bath (e.g. semen in a public onsen).
• Christian religious horror (angels, demons, etc. as an element of horror; inclusion of non-Christian demons are fine; references to Christianity/Christian characters in canons with Christianity are fine). (Whatever is canon through Book 8 of DCC is fine re: demons.)
• Bright, strobing lights or quick flashing in visual gifts.
• On-screen naked clearly visible dicks in art gifts for if there's a wrapping paper sub-challenge again this year. (This applies only to art. See letter DNW explication section for ways I'd be fine with dick-having characters depicted naked or having sex in art.)
• Rimworld colonies participating in/perpetuating slavery in Rimworld. (References to colonists having been slaves is fine. Terrible treatment of prisoners/organ farms/blood farms are fine. Recruitment of prisoners who become regular colonists is fine. Prisoners being enslaved, use of slave labor, and focus on full-scale slavery options is what I am trying to avoid here.)
• For DCC, Carl smushing small creatures (stomping big creatures: fine; references to the near-acceleration, etc.: fine; on-screen smushing of gerbils, etc. or focus on past small creature smushing: please avoid).
• For DCC, permanent character death for named crawlers or former crawlers still alive as of the end of the 11th floor, the AI, or Zev. (Temporary character death where the character is on-screen alive at the end of the work is welcome!)
• For DCC, death of common pet-type creatures. (Cats, dogs, hamsters, etc. Fish being eaten is fine.)
• For DCC, Patreon/Book 9 spoilers.
• For DCC, Carl having sex with the AI in an avatar that has another soul/person along for the ride.
• For DCC, Donut sex unless it's off-screen with Ferdinand. Donut is my favorite, and she deserves everything she wants, but not in a gift for me.

DNW Clarifications and Explications:

Comas and unrequested real life serious illness: Weird confined to canon stuff like Without a Cure, qi deviations, or chakra exhaustion are fine. Cancer is not.

Gender-related dysphoria: Dysphoria unrelated to gender is fine. I'm good with body horror, but if someone transmigrates into an AFAB body from an AMAB one or vice versa (or something else where gender dysphoria can crop up), I don't want descriptions of their discomfort with their new chest or genitalia or signs that their gender identity is a reason this experience is distressing for them. Discomfort over things like the body being the wrong height or the arms being shorter or other things that could be the same whether male or female are fine. "This is weird, but I'm rolling with it" is fine. "I have breasts now and I'm actively distraught over it" is not a good fit for a gift for me.

Trans characters existing without any reference to them experiencing dysphoria is fine (as are references to binding, tucking, and other things that I have room to read as to do with presentation alone).

I'm fine with pregnancy experienced as body horror in mpreg, but in that case, please still avoid active distress over developing breast tissue/anything in the chest area, and please heed the pregnancy of trans men DNW.

Pregnancy of trans men: To be as clear as possible, this DNW is for pregnancy of people who were assigned female at birth but identify as men. So long as my other DNWs are followed, I'm fine with things like people changing around their own body, including their reproductive systems, with magic or by other means to try to make mpreg possible; trans women or nonbinary people getting pregnant; or male transmigrators getting pregnant (whether it's because they fell into an omegaverse world, men can just get pregnant in this world, or they ended up in a female body (in which in this one case, yes, you can mpreg a newly trans man, though please heed the gender-related dysphoria DNW)).

Dubcon, noncon, rapeplay. Sexual harassment or menacing: In the past, I've been fine with (and liked) a lot of dubcon, but I currently don't want any. In the case of anything that could be taken in a dub- or noncon direction, I want the consensual version only.

Memory issues related to sex: Memory issues unrelated to sex are fine.

Infidelity etc.: Poly is fine. I don't want anyone confused on the fact that it is poly, not cheating.

In general, my major concern is to avoid a) definitely cheating in any direction, b) something in which one part of the ship thinks the other part is in a closed relationship and that's what the main ship is engaging in, c) something in which one half of a closed relationship believes the other is cheating on them and we the audience are likely to also think that's what's going on and which comprises a major, ongoing part of the work as opposed to something brief and mistaken.

References to canon infidelity are fine.

Focus on unrequited love: For pining for requested ships, characters can think it is unrequited, but I would like them to be wrong. References to things as they stand at whatever point in canon are fine in canons where unrequited love comes up, but I'd rather not get a fic entirely about a character being sad that their love is a one way street and ending up alone unless explicitly requested. That said, if I have included a parenthetical with this DNW that lists unrequited ships I am fine to get a work centered around (probably a vid if history is anything to judge), then I absolutely mean it, and pay attention to what I said there over what I've said here.

Underage (under 18) sex: References to teenagers being sexually active in teenager-typical ways is fine, but I'd rather not get explicit sex scenes.

Adult/currently-a-minor relationships: Aging up so everyone is over 18 is fine. Relationships between two people roughly the same age is fine, like a 17 and 19 year old. References to minors having unrequited crushes on adults is fine (though in that case, again, I'd rather not have that unrequited crush be a major focus). For scenarios in which two adults knew each other when one was a minor, I'd prefer not to have direct references to the possibility that anything could've happened then, even if it's to emphasize that the younger adult is an adult now.

Anal tearing or bleeding: Dry sex and using things that aren't lube as lubricant (e.g. semen or spit) going by porn logic is fine so long as there's no damage from it.

Women on the receiving end of anal: If women are having anal sex, I want them to be on the giving end only (so f->m pegging is fine).

Contract or 24/7 BDSM or use of the word "master" in a sexual context: Mentioning this because I have a lot of BDSM-related or adjacent likes. It wouldn't ruin my night or fic, but I'm not super into the formalized contract thing or it being the focus of a relationship/what the relationship is primarily about, and I don't want to accidentally set any traps for my author. I'm fine with and enjoy non-formalized play, with people having fun with pain, bondage, some power dynamics (e.g. characters addressing each other by title), etc.

Painplay as a punishment or unintended and/or unwelcome sexual arousal from a punishment or torture: If someone's getting spanked, I want it to be because they want it. If someone's getting tortured, I don't want it to be sexual.

On-screen naked clearly visible dicks in art gifts: Please hide the dicks in some way, whether that's in water that isn't very clear so you can only see a vague outline, through angling, inside the other person (the base/beginning of a dick going into someone being visible is fine), a conveniently placed house plant or thigh, everything but the base/bottom inch being hidden by someone's hand, partially clothed sex—it doesn't matter to me so long as the head isn't visible and most of it is hidden. Again, this DNW is for art only. (I have commented on and liked many works that would hit this DNW, but DNWing the specifics of what I'm actually trying to avoid isn't really feasible, so even though there's only a 10% chance of getting something that would guarantee I disliked the gift, we're throwing the metaphorical baby out with the bathwater.)

Requested Fandoms

Dwarf Fortress

Requested character(s): Any (includes Dwarf, Overseer, Necromancer, and Worldbuilding)

Want to write a story based on one of your games? A particular mechanic you love? Something diving into the sorts of worlds DF creates? A bit of history generated in one of your world states? Something else? I'm 100% here for it.

I want to emphasize that while I'd love gen for this fandom, I'd also be happy with ships between any sentient humanoid characters for DF, including original characters.

Things I like about this canon and general canon promotion:

Dwarf Fortress is a (free!) simulation game with a steep learning curve, but a huge pay-off in highly entertaining emergent story-telling and weird dwarven decisions. This can include anything from new mothers in the military taking their babies into battle to use as shields to tantrum-throwing dwarves (upset that their babies are now full of arrows) destroying the whole fortress and killing everyone in it by hitting the lever to your "magma solves everything" doomsday device.

It's also available to buy on Steam!

I'm including in the links several comics that illustrate many of the best things about DF.

Links:

Dev site (includes download)

DF Wiki

Tim Denee's illustrated tale of Bronzemurder (includes transcript of comic's text)

Tim Denee's Oilfurnace (no transcript, spoilers for hidden fun stuff)

Three Panel Soul, "Bug Fix" (Illustrated patch notes, e.g. "Stopped vampires from pinning their crimes on children.")

Losing is fun!

I will never not love this game. When I first started playing it, it was a very different game than it is now, but it has only gotten better. I have embraced the mantra that losing is fun, discovered all the hidden fun stuff, and even managed attempts at mega projects and tried my hand at silly dwarf tricks. (Few survived the first several attempts at a magma-fall through the main dining room, but those few left were delighted at how neat it looked! … For however long they lived after the ensuing grief stricken tantrum spiral. Apparently a magma fountain can only do so much.)

Please feel free to check out some past Dwarf Fortress letters for past prompts if you'd like, and here are some from an early letter I'd still love to see:

Dwarf (Dwarf Fortress): Tell me about a fortress! Is it well-run, with plenty of booze and food, peaceful surroundings, and a highly competent military to take care of any problems? Is it located in a hellscape (perhaps even literally if they colonized hell), with no beds, saltwater, and rampaging undead elephant skeletons clambering at the gates?

Or for a single dwarf, maybe something with the last dwarf of the fortress, walled in without escape? Or for another single dwarf prompt, tell me about a dwarf crafting their masterpiece, whether they're finally delighted to make that metallic cheese figurine that came to them in a dream, or have been struck by a fell mood, and they know just the perfect dwarf for that femur throne that haunts their darkest nightmares.

Overseer (Dwarf Fortress): Tell me about a good, bad, or incompetent overseer! Why have they made the decisions they have? What decisions have they made? Do they grow frustrated with their population and the creative interpretation of orders, or do the various and unexpected consequences amuse them? What mega-project are they determined to create, and why?

Necromancer (Dwarf Fortress): Tell me about a necromancer and their books and tower! Do they keep all those undead around to protect their libraries? Maybe that invasion of undead is simply because they're unhappy with their new dwarven neighbors and they're just trying to protect their peace, quiet, and property values. Feel free to go as creepy or cracky as you like. Necromancers.

Whatever you choose, I'm excited for any kind of worldbuilding about this canon, whether you focus on a particular world, dwarven culture, other races, adventurers, necromancers, forgotten beasts, lore, stupid dwarf tricks, past nonsense players got up to that Toady took away—whatever strikes your fancy to explore, I'm here for it.

Dungeon Crawler Carl - Matt Dinniman

Requested character(s): Carl, Donut, Prepotente, System AI

While I would be delighted with all four, I will happily accept any subset of at least two characters from those requested or Prepotente alone/a focus on Prepotente with the appearance of unrequested characters. If you would like to write Carl/System AI that does not hit any of my DNWs, whether one-sided from the AI's side or mutual, I'd be happy with that, too.

Things I like about this canon and general canon promotion:

I'm not putting together a real promo post for this one because I'm sure anyone reading this letter has probably seen at least one around the internet.

What I can say is that what someone left out of the initial promo to me but which has been the number one hook that could have gotten me to read sooner is that at their heart, these books are about the bond between a man and his cat (or, to be more exact, his ex-girlfriend's cat he never let himself consciously consider his) and about the power of community and resistance in the face of powerful systems of oppression.

They're also a fun popcorn read, and they have gotten me into audiobooks. I highly recommend the audiobooks by Jeff Hays as a starting point.

Not really prompts:

I don't exactly have prompts for this fandom. I just have a lot of feelings.

I love how ridiculous and yet heartfelt these books can be, the way that Carl never loses sight of the fact that it's the system (little s) that is the real enemy here, the way Donut and Prepotente have to learn how to be sapient people in the middle of trying to survive a murder dungeon/the universe's worst reality TV show, and the way the System AI is trying to do the same while also coming to grips with everything about its existence (how it was made, who it is, what it is forced to do, what it's enjoyed and what of that might be a survival tactic, what its inevitable ending was always supposed to be).

I love that Donut is so strong and brave and such a cat and also kind of still a jerk sometimes but has such a huge heart. I love that she did a revolution over fandom messageboards and that she's always performing but she still feels so, so much. I love Donut loving Bea even as she knew that Bea wanted to give her up and how in some ways Bea being alive made it so much easier to hate her, too. I'm having a lot of feelings now that the webtoon has caught up to that point about Donut letting Carl know she heard what Mordecai said at the Tutorial Guild about abandoning her on the ninth floor and how Carl doesn't know that Donut knows that he and Bea were going to give her up.

I love that Prepotente is trying so hard and wants to be good but also has moments where you see how young and not human he is, and I love that Donut can act as a sounding board and a bulwark for him. I'd love to see him, the AI, and Donut playing off of each other because they all have that in common, new to all of this and not human but trying so hard to become the people they want to be. I love Prepotente thinking he and Carl are best friends. I love everything with Prepotente and Miriam. (Also, if you want to break your heart, rec for a great Prepotente and Miriam animatic.)

I love how Carl is not always a reliable narrator, that he can tell the reader his dad never really hit him in one book and then reveal the thing about the motorcycle later; I love how Carl not only survived his childhood and the anger it gave him but that he never let it turn him bitter, only determined. I love how Carl is absolutely a horror movie monster to certain people in the Syndicate on the ninth floor, and how he was one to Gary, but he really is trying to do his best by as many people as he can. I love that he has a terrible sense of humor and thinks the AI is funny all the way back at like the first floor. I love that Carl inspires the AI early on to get on the road to revolution town, even if their paths (and what that looks like) diverge.

I love that the AI manages to feel young and big, how sarcastic and angry and yet curious it is, how determined it is to take what happiness it can, to see the humor in terrible situations because this is it's life and this is what it gets. I love how it's learning, and how very not human it is. I love how unabashedly weird it is. Also, everything about the Molly McGuires achievement gave me hope that canon was going in the direction of what I want for the AI.

In general, I'd love:

• Something focused on the requested characters and perhaps their relationships with each other
• Something with Donut, Prepotente, and/or the AI acting as a foil or sounding board for one another, intentionally or unintentionally, as they're figuring out this person thing
• An adventure
• A snippet of what a happy ending could look like for them
• Anything from my likes
• Gen unless it's AI/Carl

Rimworld

Requested character(s): Worldbuilding (Rimworld)

Things I like about this canon and general canon promotion:

Like Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld is a simulation and generative storytelling, this time set in space! You can play with regular old humans or a variety of aliens. You can play peace-loving farmers, globe-trotting wanderers, or, taking a leaf from the book of the pirates attacking you, raiders. There are also a ton of DLCs and mods.

It's available on Steam and, if you read this letter in time, currently on sale. (Creator assigned me, I regret that the sale will be done once you get this link.)

FYI, I am fine with references to mods! I'm most familiar with mods like Hospitality, Dubs Bad Hygiene, UI improvements, cooking and furniture and plant expansions, RimZoo (RIP), SeedsPlease, A Dog Said (animal prosthetics), Kill For Me (directable pet armies), Factional War, Go Explore, various Vanilla mods, Tradeable Trinkets, and so on. I'm not very familiar with mods that add new races, but if there's enough background to understand what's going on, more than happy to roll with whatever mod references you want to include regardless of whether I'm personally familiar with them.

I'd love any worldbuilding for Rimworld. Tell me about your colony, new or established! Tell me about a glitterworld! Explore one of the cultures out there! Give me the more in depth backstory of one of the generated pawns! Follow the adventures of a man or woman in black and how they ended up in that life! Tell me about a rogue AI! Tell me about the cult worshipping the rogue AI! Show me the ancients, before it all went wrong! Tell me about a Thrumbos and its adventures roaming the world with its companion!

I'm honestly just eager for whatever it is that interests you in Rimworld, from the zany to the horrific to the optimistic and uplifting and on. Any tone, from a happy ending to a total colony kill.

Discount Dan's Backroom Bargains - James Hunter

Requested character(s): Croc

Things I like about this canon:

This and Kaiju were last minute additions to my requests (within the last five minutes of sign ups), so not much in the way of canon promotion this year. If you're curious, Discount Dan is a Lit RPG in which a guy gets drunk and noclips into the backrooms, a self-healing area made of many different floors, populated by monsters, in which objects from the "real" world have power. I'm listening to the audiobook, but it's obviously available in regular book form and ebook as well.

Anyway, I am 1,000% here for Croc, the helpful mimic who was mistaken for a pet by an earlier admission to the backrooms and has been chasing human friendship ever since. Croc still thinks people would be delicious, but he is definitely a friend! He wants to try waterparks! He's not very good at getting an exact replication of the things he's trying to be, but he's trying so hard! He's so helpful even when the humans he's trying to help run screaming straight into monsters! I love him.

I also am enjoying the way Dan is starting up something new that's actually helpful to new people and is inadvertently encouraging people to explore rather than hunker down. I love the horror of the backrooms, and I like that they're working to make them a little less horrible. I really enjoyed the combination of ridiculousness and yet power that very first battle in the first book had, two titans clashing using silly props. I also like the researcher and the system, the sardonic and almost acerbic way it talks sometimes. I love Baby Hands and Princess Ponypuff and how he's got on the one hand a guy who's got the brains of a brick but is a hard worker and on the other hand, he's got … Princess Ponypuff. Everyone wants an employee who's hoping for the devourer of worlds to come, right?

I'm enjoying Jakob and Temperance, too!

Very optional prompts:

FYI, right now, I'm only on book two, but I'm confident I will have listened to all of the audiobooks by the time we get gifts, and I don't mind spoilers, so if you have an idea but it relies on backstory revealed in book 3 or is set after current canon, please feel free to go for it!

Beyond that, I would love to see a work focused around Croc.

• Maybe five times Croc tried to help a new delver (and one time Croc got to spend time with his new family).
• Maybe horror humor following Croc and one of his early Delvers (until they get eaten/torn to shreds/drowned in a fountain/whatever happens to them).
• Maybe something with Croc being rejected by the mimics but picked up by his very first Delver.
• Maybe something set during current canon, like a missing scene of Croc getting creeped out by Princess Ponypuff.
• Maybe Dan finds an actual waterpark, and Croc gets to explore it with him, and between Dan's trap sense and Croc and Dan reaching a high enough level, they get to use it (sort of! if one ignores all the fighting and dwellers!) like a real vacation to a waterpark.
• Maybe Dan and Croc and others go on a different adventure!

Really, I am happy with whatever other characters you include so long as the focus is on Croc. I considered if I wanted to request Dan, too, and say I'd be open to fewer than my requested if I got just Croc or if it was one of my Dan ships (and for the record, I would be fine with background Dan/the Researcher, Dan/his system, or Dan/Jakob, or even receiving those as a treat in the Madness collection), but the truth is I really am here for Croc, and I would be over the moon to get Croc gen.

Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon - Matt Dinniman

Requested character(s): Duke, Banksy

Things I like about this canon:

This and Discount Dan were last minute additions to my requests (within the last five minutes of sign ups), so not much in the way of canon promotion this year. If you're curious, Kaiju is a horror Lit RPG about a guy who gets an offer that is too good to be true and ends up trapped in a video game while his body has six months to live in the VR rig if he can't beat the game and make it out. Someone once described it to me as oddly erotic horror, and they were spot on. If you get the chance, listen to the Soundbooth Theater cinematic audio experience, complete with music, sound effects, and a phenomenal performance by Jeff Hays.

For me, this book has four main draws: the horror, the depiction of and conversation with trauma and grief, the kaiju, and Banksy. Banksy is the best boy. While I would love horror, and I wouldn't mind if you broke my heart all over again, and I would be delighted with more stuff with the kaiju (especially the Shrill!), all I need is Banksy and Duke having some time together to come away happy from a gift.

Very optional prompts:

• Missing scene with Duke and Banksy, lighthearted and humorous or more horror or a wonderful mix of both
• The server wasn't deleted, just turned off, and Duke finds a way to get Banksy back
• The AI figures out a way to preserve itself and everyone on the server, and now the internet is a little bit infested with self-aware digital beings, including one best boy who is worried about his dad's struggle to readjust to the real world
• Something where it isn't clear if Duke's dreaming or it's the afterlife, but after an accident/something happens, Banksy is there, and so is his son, and Duke doesn't know if he'll wake up after this, but he's so, so grateful to see them together, and a part of him hopes this is real

If there's a Banksy and Duke story you've just been waiting for the chance to tell, though, or you're inspired by one of my likes above, I would love to read it! I don't have a ton of ideas here, just a lot of feelings and the desire to read about these characters.